Who are we?
The association Enfants Sourds du Cambodge (Deaf Children of Cambodia) is a French association providing help and assistance to the hard of hearing children of Cambodia.
It is an nonpolitical nondenominational organisation.
Our purposes are:
- to provide medical care to hard of hearing children,
- to fit hearing aids,
- to provide the required equipments for the use and maintenance of hearing aids,
- to implement speech therapy training for specialised teachers,
- to train Cambodian technicians in servicing hearing aids and manufacturing ear molds .
History
The association was founded in 2001 by Jean-Paul Béraha, audiologist in Toulon, and Michel Bré, ENT doctor in Toulon.
Since then, the medical team has been enlarged by audiologists from France (Montbéliard, Bordeaux, Lyon, Evreux, Strasbourg, Epinal, Montpellier, Narbonne, Evian), Switzerland and Canada, and ENT doctors from Bordeaux, Montbéliard et Montpellier.
The first mission took place in July 2001. Two missions are carried out per year.
Why Cambodia ?
Due to the genocide perpetrated between 1975 and 1979 by the Khmers Rouges, period during which one third of the population disappeared, the intellectual class and the medical community were entirely decimated. In the 80s, health programs were supported by NGOs, and public aids came from abroad. Since 1993, the school system has been restructured. The teaching of medical specialties may be now provided, but international assistance is still mandatory. Hearing impairment was not a priority in this huge task. ENT specialists are few, the audiologists and speech therapists do not exist.
Why deafness ? Why children ?
In the Cambodian society, and according to Buddhist principles, disability is a fate and nobody can help other people to offload his demerits. The disabled person is left to himself.
The action of Benoît Duchâteau-Arminjon, founder of the NGO Krousar Thmey, creating special schools for blind and deaf children, helped gradually to change the look carried on child with disabilities and to allow him to find his place in Cambodian society.
Enfants Sourds du Cambodge recruits hearing aid specialists and ENT doctors having acquired long-standing competence in the field of child deafness.
Our action comes in complement to that from NGO Krousar Thmey for the medical taking care of these children.
Enfants Sourds du Cambodge
210 chemin Pas Maï
83190 OLLIOULES (France)
Phone : +33 4 94 63 50 54
Email :
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www.enfantssourdsducambodge.org
